Even though Apple Pay hasn't taken the world by storm, that's not the only reason why people care about Apple's Touch ID. In addition to making the process of unlocking an iPhone and iPad much easier, it's also proven to be a very important security tool for many third-party applications at the moment. You'd wonder what exactly can Apple improve from this feature on future iOS devices, and the answer is actually quite extensive. KGI research has been famous for many of its Apple predictions, and today's round of assumptions focuses on Touch ID and its future. The firm predicts that the ...

Third-party accessory makers don't always have it too easy. When there's a big high-profile smartphone getting ready to launch, they all want to have products ready to go as soon as it hits stores, but the manufacturers behind these handsets can be quite secretive about their designs. As a result, companies like those who make cases sometimes find themselves going behind the phone manufacturer to try and get some early insight into upcoming products – just look at last year and all the months of iPhone 6 cases we checked out leading up to Apple's eventual launch. We might not be so lucky ...

Last week we found ourselves talking about a big upcoming release for Apple's mobile devices, as rumors looked into the company's plans for distributing iOS 8.2. And while we're still anticipating a release sometime in March, getting Apple devices ready to work with the company's soon-to-hit-retail smartwatch, today we're looking a little further out towards subsequent software releases, as Apple begins seeding the first iOS 8.3 beta to its developer community. So what's new in 8.3? Well, so far devs have spotted things like a new scrollable layout for selecting emoji to be inserted in ...

We're at least 4 months away from Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, where the company usually shows us its next version of both its desktop and mobile operating systems, and another 8 months away from a possible launch. Many of you may consider Apple to be conservative when it comes to the visual aspect of both operating systems, but aggressive features like Continuity and Hand-off are still not on the radar of any of its competitors. That being said, it seems that the company is planning to settle down for the next launch. Even though Apple has been famous for offering the most ...

You can find special offers on cool stuff every day at the Pocketnow Deals Store. For a limited time, get trained in app design for the yet-to-be-released Apple Watch, get typing on the go with the myType Bluetooth Keyboard, and get high flying fun with the Blade Pico Double-Flip Drone. Mammoth Interactive ‘Apple Watch’ App Builder Course The highly anticipated Apple Watch will be hitting store shelves soon. It features an entirely new interface that requires apps to be developed in a whole new way. That’s why the Pocketnow Deals Store is happy to introduce the Mammoth Interactive ...

At this point most of us are done trying to predict why Apple would spend $3.2 billion in acquiring Beats. Surely the company's headphones fit well in Apple's over-marketed and high-end mentality, but what about the whole Beats Music business? Well, remember those old rumors of Apple wanting to sell iTunes music on Android? It seems Cupertino finally figured out an elegant solution. To start with the basics, this report starts with the basics, by painting a grim picture for the future of Beats Music on iOS devices. It seems that Apple is planning to ditch the Beats Music brand as a ...

Every time we've seen Apple partner with Google on something, the results have proven to be positive. We wish we could say the same about every time Apple has decided to stop using Google for any particular service, but historically, Apple has never succeeded at it. Just as we recently discussed how Apple might be working on its own version of Street View, it seems Cupertino is now out for more. A recent job posting has Apple searching for a project manager that will work on "a search platform supporting hundreds of millions of users" and "play a part in revolutionizing how people use ...

Google has not only pioneered the whole concept of bringing usable maps to the internet, but it has also succeeded in giving us a much smarter way to commute through services like Google Maps. Apple tried to do the same with its launch of iOS 6, and yes, it has continue to fail to gain consumer trust even with recent software updates and fixes. The result of all this ended up being that Google Maps made its way to the iPhone, but it seems that Apple is still interested in the maps business. San Francisco radio station KPIX recently reported that a mysterious minivan was driving around the ...

The buzz in the wearables space has been largely stolen by the Apple Watch, which Apple first debuted months ago at its iPhone 6 unveil event in Fall. Now that quite some time has passed, the company is nearly ready to launch the device, and one part of that launch involves an iOS update in order to add support for the device. iOS 8.2 is currently in its beta stage right now, but a new report from BGR states that the wider Apple iOS 8.2 release could happen sometime in March. This release could correspond with a special event in March too, which is seemingly more and more likely. Given ...

The tide is changing in the US smartphone market. Competition between carriers is heating up, and major shifts in how we pay for phones and service are already underway. If you bought a new phone recently, there's a solid chance that instead of taking advantage of a carrier subsidy, you either bought the handset outright or directly financed it through a payment plan. And with so many players offering to pay their competitors' early termination fees in order to snag new customers, you have to think up with something pretty compelling to keep subscribers for the long haul. Last fall, Sprint ...

We've come to a stage where most of the things we read about the Apple Watch are now news, and no longer rumors, and that's a good thing. We already know that the product will be available in stores in April, and we even know that Apple is building a new version of iOS to support it, in addition to bringing a special app to control it. If you're wondering when these extras will be ready for the Apple Watch, we just learned more. Developers are already stating that Apple has begun requesting their Apple Watch app submissions for testing, and the report also claims that Apple aims to have ...

The thought of a technology company preparing itself to sell jewelry would've been hilarious just a few years ago. Even today with many OEMs selling wearables, none of the products we've seen in the market so far are what we would consider to be luxury items. Apple is trying to approach this market in a different way, and that also involves significant retail changes as part of the territory. Inside sources claim that Apple is requiring that all of its stores to be fitted with safes that can protect the Apple Watch Edition, something that makes sense since its an 18k gold product. These ...

The Apple Watch is coming, there's no doubt about it. It would have been better (for the company, and potential users) if Apple would have done what they usually do with "available now", instead of letting six months pass from the introduction to availability, but that's not up for debate here. Mid-to-late spring is when the Apple Watch will probably be available (that is likely April, instead of March), but, even so, we've got something to get you through the waiting. The companion application via which the Apple Watch will keep in touch with your iPhone or iPad will most likely have the ...

We've been waiting for the larger iPad -- tentatively named the iPad Pro -- to officially surface for the longest time, and that's not necessarily because we need it, but because the slate has been rumored for more than a year. The last time we heard about it, it had a 12.2-inch screen and we've seen some alleged schematics, and then, more recently, aside from more rumors, we've also seen a render comparing how the tablet would look next to the 12-inch MacBook Air (another device which is in a rumor stage, as Apple currently only has an 11 and a 13-inch MacBook Air). This time we're ...

Apple and Samsung may be out of the court room with all the patent disputes, but it seems that both companies continue to compete at something. For the longest time, Samsung has overshadowed Apple in smartphone sales, and that does make sense since Samsung serves every single market segment, while Apple only focuses on the higher-end. That being said, even with all the logic behind Samsung's success, it seems that reality is about to change very soon. Both Strategy Analytics and even the IDC are already revealing their worldwide smartphone figures, and it turns out that Samsung's ...

A few years ago, anybody would've believed that Samsung's growth momentum was invincible. The Korean giant not only managed to make more profit than many of its competitors combined, but it is still the biggest cellphone seller in the world. That said, we do know that the company has struggled in its sales figures over the last couple of quarters, and it seems things aren't getting better. A day after Apple announced that its $18 billion in quarterly profit broke even the ExxonMobil record set back in 2012, Samsung's profits continue to plummet. Samsung is barely reporting 5.3 trillion Won ...

Tim Cook spent a good amount of time yesterday telling us how well the iPhone was performing in sales over the last quarter. One interesting point he made during the conference call, is that more Android users had switched to iOS with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, than ever before, something hard to believe at a time when Android is still dominant in market share. If you're wondering if these words hold true, some analytics firms did so too, and have just published a study. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) have just released a some numbers regarding the switch ...

Last week's Windows 10 event brought us the latest preview of not just Microsoft's direction for the next evolution of its operating system, but also of some of the key software titles that users will be working with. That means a lot of members from the Office family of products, and while this software may call Microsoft's own platforms home, the company's been working towards making more and more of these titles available for users of other mobile ecosystems. Today Microsoft makes the next step in such efforts, taking the Android tablet versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint out of ...

Apple's in the midst of its latest earnings call for investors at the moment, and just announced some jaw-dropping iPhone sales leading to record quarterly profit; it's a good time to be Apple. But these sort of calls aren't just about looking back on what the company has done to date, and are also designed to give us a little insight into how the next quarter should fare for Apple stockholders. While we're probably still several months away from any new tablet hardware, not to mention a new iPhone, Apple Watch sales have been looming in the shadows since the hardware was first announced ...

Without doubt, Apple had one heck of a first quarter this year, having just posted the largest profit ever for any company. But that wasn't the only massive number milestone Apple has hit recently: Tim Cook, the company's chief executive, has revealed on the first quarter earnings call that Apple has sold one billion iOS devices as of November of last year. The lucky purchase was made in late November, and the handset that made the cut was a space grey 64GB iPhone 6 Plus (no word on which carrier it was). Cook said that the device is "saved here at Apple," which is slightly confusing, ...

Coming off the launch of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad mini 3, and iPad Air 2, Apple looked like it was going to have a pretty good quarter. The combination of fresh hardware and the holiday shopping season is a recipe for success, and analysts were hoping to see Apple sell some 65 to 70 million iPhones. As it happens, Apple did them one better, and iPhone sales of 74.5 million units helped lead the company to its highest revenue and profit ever. All told, Apple brought in some $74.6 billion in the quarter running through the end of December, with $18 billion of that representing ...

Going back several weeks now, we've been eagerly awaiting Apple to deliver iOS 8.1.3. Rumors suggested that the update might start heading out as early as two weeks ago, following word that Apple retail employees were helping out with some late-stage testing. But after the public release failed to materialize, we heard about an additional round of 8.1.3 betas, as Apple worked out the remaining kinks. Hopefully that fine-tuning has paid off, because it's finally time to flip the switch on iOS 8.1.3, with Apple getting mass distribution underway this afternoon. The download notification ...

Over the years, Twitter's been evolving from a blank 140-character slate to deliver users more and more features. It used to be that you had to manually shorten URLs, until Twitter automated the process. And you used to need third-party image hosts until Twitter started accepting uploads itself. With video, the situation's been a little more complicated, and while the company purchased Vine, that service has continued to exist more as a companion to Twitter itself. But now Twitter's finally ready to address video head-on, announcing integrated video capture and sharing tools for its mobile ...

A couple of years ago, it would've been almost impossible to imagine Apple experimenting with anything outside its comfort zone. That said, the same company that was reluctant to launch a mini tablet, did with the iPad mini, and the same company that denied the need for a bigger iPhone, launched two of them with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Recent reports claim that Apple is working on a larger iPad and even a 12-inch MacBook Air, and if you've ever wondered what that will look like, have a look. Designer Martin Hajek has already garnered some significant fame for his iPhone renders in ...

It's regularly common for the citizens of many countries to show a certain degree of pride and nationalism for the products made in their respective territories. That has slowly changed though, as the whole concept of "Made In America" stopped being important in the US many years ago. You'd think that this would be important in countries like South Korea, and especially with Samsung's world dominance of the smartphone market, but it seems to be slowly fading away. Counterpoint Research has just revealed some numbers for South Korea, and according to the report, Apple has broken records, ...